New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1887-07-02
NEW PUBLICATIONS.
THE HISTORY OF pEssIMlsM.

LIMO. 10 ScrlDnor q WEXFORD.
Mr.. Saltus evidently feels strong attraction
toward the literary movements of pessimist phil
osophy. This IL the second volume he has dedi-
Gated to the explanation of that unhappy system of
thought. The fascination which the subject pos
sesses for him operates as an intellectual stimulus
and develops his most vigorous conceptions and
his subtlest thoughts. As result the work he has
attempted, namely the creation of a tabeau Of
ant-theism from Kapila to Lecomte de Lise," is in
tercstinely performed, with abundance of incl
dental illustration, and in pleasant gossipping
fashion which relieves the reader largely from the
inherent burden of the topic. But Mr.. Saltus has
not been so careful as he might haye been IN veri-
flying his facts and one consequence of this is that
in the chapter he gives to an account of Buddhism
he perpetrates a plumber of errors, common enough,
1t is true to European Orientalists and pervading
too many of the works which, whether tho produc-
tion of phiologiars theoogians, unite in ascrib-
ing to the founder of Buddhism ideas and beliefs
in some instances quite the reverse of what he
actually held. To enrol Buddha as an anti-theist
is Mr.. Satus's initial blunder. OF it is not
open to HIM to maintain that disbelief in personal
Deity Is anti-theism. The Buddhist doctrine is a
very broad one; at least broad the very latest
Western philosophy, that usually called evolution
airy. Buddhism, contrary to Mr.. Satus's represent
alton, is finally theistic, simply declining to define
a divinity whose nature and attributes transcend
the conception and apprehension of finite inteili-
gencc 1t may be said, for the purpose of general
1zation, that the deity of Buddhism and the Un-
movable of the Spencerian system are identical.
But Buddhism Is not agnostic, for it holds that
what the latter styles the Unknowable may be ap-
pretended, under peculiar and exceptional c0ndi-
tions, even by men In the present stage of exist
ence The religion. therefore, cannot properly be
classed as anti-theistic and the account given by
Mr.. Saltus of Niryana is not less faulty than the
part above noticed.
''Nirvana," he writes. is not paradise. nor yet
state of post-mortem trance. 1t is the extinction
of all desire, the triple .,ctory of the Arhat.
which precedes the great goal eternal DEATH" This
description of Nirvana while 1T may be paralleed
from many Western books on OrIentalism, and
while it has the support of some great scholars,
must nevertheless be rejected by all who hold that
the Buddhists themselves necessarily the best
authority on the history and doctrine of their own
religion. According to the Buddhists their Mir
vana does not involve extinction or annihilation,
but on the contrary elevation to sphere of exist
ence 80 far superior to the present earthfe as to
be lncomprehensible and indesoriba6le. Just as it
may be supposed that the chrysalis would be inca
pablo of understanding the life of the enfranchised
butterfly, SO tho incarnate spirit is incapable OF
conceiving the raptures and joys of existence
a
be grasped by mere humanity. No doubt all man
ner of coarse and extravagant additions have been
made to Buddhism during its descent, but that has
been the case with all religions and no one who
desires to reach the central teachings In any faith
will accept the corrupt accretions which all PRIEST
hoods gather about the pristine doctrines. There
are unquestionably Buddhists living who have lost
the true faith, just all over the continent of
Europe there are so-called Christians whose beliefs
are grOtesque. erroneous perverted. But the doc
trne which Buddba taught, and which is still pre-
served by large body Of his devout followers, has
nothing in common with Pessimism.
1t is curious that the paradox which almost every
Western student of Buddhism has perceived and
puzzled over namely, the wonderful spread and
the wonderful vitality of religion assumed to be
founded on theory of despair, has not convinced
these inquirers of their error They are perfectly
right in saying that the situation they interpret
it is incredible. 1t is so, and the explanation OF
this incredible state of things is that the Western
inauirers have made mistake. 1t was not q re-
ligon of despair that appealed powerfully
to the Oriental races; that though driven
out of India, is STILL after some twenty-five
hundred years, the dominant creed on the earth 1t
was religion OF consolation; one which went homo
to the hearts of the common peoples one which
held out to all the hope of final redemption and
"
main with the Christian idea of Heaven. The &C
complishment of the round of incarnati0hs,
cordng to the Buddhist, is the point of departure
for new spiritual existence of the most exalted
nature leadin CUP to the ultimate conception OF all
the Oriental faiths. namely absorption in the
Supreme 1t is not sufficiently realized that the
general outlines of this belief common to
Hinduism as well as Buddhism. The fact is that
Buddha found them prevailing, and did not inter
fere with them What he taught was not in
derogation of but in addition to the old doctrines.
He believed that he had found way to shorten the
wearisome chain of existence a path by following
which men might conquer the necessity of rebirth
on this planet. The irremediable i'll which be de-
scribed as appertaining to existence and which has
been such q stumbling block for European CON-
mentators belongs only to this life. 1t is existence
in the flesh that he regards as an evil which all
should desire to cease and determine; it is exist
ence on the spiritual plane that he holds out the
reward of self-denla and perseverance, here.
Mr. Saltus passes from the Oriental systems o
thought to those of Greece and Rome and sketches
with light hand the attitude OF the pessimist
schools of antiquity. In the descent through the
dark ages to modern times the expression OF the
philosophy of negation undergoes many surface
changes, but fundamentally it remains the same.
Perhaps the most remarkable fact in connection
with all these schemes of thought is that while
their logical force is formidable they have exer-
cised 80 nconsiderable an influence upon the world.
The scepticism of antiquity certainly paved the
way for the introduction Of Christianity. but that
was reaction not progress In the reception OF mega
ton. Voltairiansm in like manner prepared If it
did not produce tho Revolution. The latter was
atheistic externally and played fantastic tricks
with its worship of nature and its sham classical
ism. But the French people could not rest content
with scepticism, and return az least partial. to
the old faith ensued. The present century has wit
messed fercer and more skilfui and dangerous at
tacks than ever upon religious idealism and there
are many who would fain persuade themselves
that general acquiescence in the philosophy Of
negation is all but secured. Neither C0mte, with